Share this post:

Victims of the more-than-50-years-old infected blood scandal are being failed yet again by a government more interested in bureaucracy than justice.

In a devastating follow-up to his original report, Sir Brian Langstaff – the retired judge who chaired the long-running Infected Blood Inquiry – said the compensation system for victims of this decades-old health scandal is not just slow, but actively inflicting further harm.

His words are not those of a man offering polite suggestions.

They are an indictment.

Only 460 people have received full compensation so far.

More than 2,000 have been invited to apply, but many thousands more – including seriously ill and elderly people – are still being forced to wait.

Some have not even been allowed to begin the process.

The government has known for years that it would need to compensate these people. £11.8 billion has been set aside for this very purpose. So why the delay?

Sir Brian doesn’t mince words: “Decisions were made behind closed doors, and when things went wrong people weren’t listening. It has happened again in the design of the compensation scheme.”

In other words, the same arrogant secrecy and indifference that caused this scandal in the first place is still present today.

Back in February, Vox Political reported that the government was planning to allow as many as 140,000 bereaved parents, children and siblings to claim compensation in their own right – something long overdue.

That followed interim payments of £100,000 to around 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved partners, paid back in November 2022.

But that was only the beginning – and since then, the pace has ground almost to a halt.

Now, new recommendations from Sir Brian’s July 2025 report make it clear what should happen next:

• Everyone affected should be allowed to apply immediately – no more “invitation-only” nonsense.

• Priority should go to those who are most vulnerable: the elderly, the terminally ill, and those who’ve never received a penny.

• Those infected before 1982, long excluded, must be allowed to apply.

• Victims of medical experimentation should receive additional compensation.

• The entire system must become more transparent, with proper involvement with victims and their families.

The reaction from campaigners has been scathing.

Kate Burt of the Haemophilia Society says victims are being “stripped of their dignity.”

Richard Angell of the Terrence Higgins Trust told the story of one bereaved father, now suffering from dementia, who may die without ever seeing justice for his son.

Rachel Halford from the Hepatitis C Trust says delays and disregard have resulted in a scheme that “does not reflect the harm done.”

Despite this, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds insists the government is not dragging its heels. More than £488 million has been paid out, he says – but that’s barely four per cent of the £11.8 billion set aside.

We’ve heard these lines before. Ministers always talk about being “willing to listen” and “not wanting to delay,” but delays continue, and victims keep dying – at a rate of about one every four days.

Let’s remember what happened here.

Between the 1970s and early 90s, 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis B or C after being given contaminated blood products – mostly imported from the United States, where prison inmates were paid to give blood. Haemophiliacs were particularly hard-hit. The government at the time did little to stop this practice, and later tried to cover it up.

We now know – thanks to this inquiry – that the disaster was avoidable. Different decisions could and should have been taken. But instead, for nearly 50 years, affected families have had to fight for recognition, accountability, and now, compensation.

This is all because past governments – Labour and Conservative alike – were sold on the idea that outsourcing and privatisation were “efficient” – that it was fine to rely on cheap, unregulated US blood supplies rather than ensuring safe domestic provision.

Now we’re seeing the cost: not just in billions of pounds, but in ruined and shortened lives. It’s worth remembering that the £11.8bn set aside for compensation is nearly four times what the government hopes to save by cutting benefits to disabled people over the next five years. The money is there when the will is there – and when scandal threatens political reputation.

This government – and its predecessors – owe a debt of justice to tens of thousands of people. Paying that debt should not be optional, and it shouldn’t take more hearings, more campaigning, and more funerals to make it happen.

We were told the compensation scheme would be generous.

We were told it would be fast.

We’re still waiting.

So instead of giving us mealy-mouthed justifications, perhaps Mr Thomas-Symonds should shut up, get his departmental chequebook out, and start scribbling. He clearly has nothing better to do.

And if this is the best the UK government can manage with a scandal that has been ongoing for half a century, This Writer despairs when considering the fate of other victims.

How many more decades will the victims of the Post Office/Horizon scandal have to wait?

Share this post: